4 THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP
queen’’ who, when caught paying almost no income taxes on a vast
business empire, cavalierly stated that ‘‘only the little people pay taxes.’’
There is a story, perhaps apocryphal, that she posted one of the ‘‘little
people’’ on each side of her swimming pool with a bucket of iced
shrimp so that she could partake while she swam her laps.
But Ahab and Jezebel’s lack of integrity certainly rivals ‘‘Queen Leo-
na’s.’’ A man named Naboth possessed a vineyard, which was close to
Ahab’s palace. Ahab wanted to buy it to use as a vegetable garden, but
Naboth refused to sell: Ahab became angry and sullen, refusing to eat,
but at least his first impulse was to obey the law, however distasteful and
frustrating this might have been.
However, Jezebel saw no need for him to sulk or be disappointed:
‘‘Is this how you act as king over Israel? Get up and eat! Cheer up! I’ll
get you the vineyard.’’ (1 Kings 21:7) She devised a simple yet totally
amoral solution. She got two scoundrels (presumably through bribery
or intimidation, since she was capable of both) to publicly testify that
Naboth had cursed both God and the king (she wanted to cover all the
bases).
Jezebel succeeded in getting Naboth stoned to death. As soon as she
heard the ‘‘good news,’’ she said to her husband, ‘‘Get up and take
possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite that he refused to
sell you.’’ (1 Kings 21:15) Ahab, man of integrity that he was, was only
too happy to comply.
Compare Ahab and Jezebel’s approach with that of King David, who
wanted to build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of a fellow
named Araunah the Jebusite. David forthrightly approached Araunah to
humbly ask him to sell the threshing floor at full price (Ahab had Na-
both killed so he could appropriate Naboth’s vineyard at no cost).
Araunah offered David the threshing floor for free: ‘‘Take it! Let my
lord the king do whatever pleases him.’’ (1 Chron. 21:23) But David
insisted on paying full price despite the fact that as King he could easily
have appropriated the property by executive fiat.
By comparison, here is a modern example of a ‘‘vineyard’’ that was
certainly coveted but not seized from its rightful owner because of an
executive’s integrity. David Armstrong of Armstrong Industries wanted